Sep 10, 2007

U.S. Senator Larry Craig filed papers with a Minnesota court today asking that he be allowed to take back the guilty plea he made after his arrest in a men's restroom sex sting, saying he is innocent but that he was "anxious" and "deeply panicked" during the interrogation.

"Senator Craig has never changed or recanted his assertion that he did not engage in improper conduct, and, at the time the plea offer was drafted, both the police officers and prosecutors were aware that he steadfastly denied engaging in any improper conduct," reads the affidavit, the full text of which is available at The Smoking Gun.

The prosecutor in the case will oppose Craig's filing, said Patrick Hogan, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission.

"We will oppose the motion filed today by the senator and defend the case vigorously in court," Hogan said.

Under Minnesota law, withdrawal of a guilty plea may be permitted by a court if "necessary to correct a manifest injustice". Craig’s lawyers maintain that because the senator did not consult with a lawyer and never entered his plea before a judge in open court, he was never made aware of the potential consequences of his guilty plea – or of the potential for humiliation if news of the conviction became public knowledge.

Larry Craig knew full well the implications of his plea, and the fact that reporters had been digging into his sexual activity in the months preceding the arrest in the airport restroom is no coincidence. While perhaps the sensationalism attached to this case violates Craig's privacy, at the same time it is difficult to accept the notion that Craig is somehow a "victim." Craig would better serve his constituents by immediately resigning from the Senate and putting this all behind him.

Of course, the fact that he has retained high-priced attorneys to help him out of the mess he created for himself suggests that Craig fully intends to make an embarassing situation much worse.

There is no way he comes out of this convincing people he had no intent to "feel a cop" --as Jay Leno said so eloquently about "copping a feel."

Calling it entrapment and confessing guilt did him in. Had he said from the start that he was just tapping his foot and it meant nothing --I tap my feet sometimes to keep the circulation going when I'm sitting on a chair --and saying he bent over to pick up a piece of paper because he is compulsively tidy --he would have had an argument. As it is, he admitted that he supposed his hand was "palm up" under the stall partition--and admitted that his foot reached under the wall (albeit to keep his pants from falling on the floor)-come on!

Too much smoke here to mean "no fire."

I would feel much more sorrow for him, if he hadn't denied so lamely --if he had seemed humiliated about his temptation and weakness in this area.

It's really hard for people of normal sexual interest and impulses to understand why oral or anal sex with a stranger in a bathroom would EVER hold appeal --not in my wildest dreams would this tempt ME or the people I know. The signts and smells and sounds of a public men's room --in combination with either of those 2 acts with a stranger of questionable hygiene and diseaase condition unknown--ycccch. It's got to be mental illness.

The fun thing is, the 2008 Republican National Convention is in Minneapolis next year. I bet the hundreds of Republicans who have to use that bath room at MSP will be sitting up nice and straight, dying to pick up the quarter on the stall floor.

I love it when Madame B. describes gay sex! She brings a certain tragic poignancy to it.I want Larry craig to know that Microdot is behind him, or something like that!Fight, Fight, Fight! Senator Craig!Drag this debacle out as long as you can!Maybe he can draw a little attention from the breaking double murder/suicide gay love triangle case that involves the former head of the South Carolina Republican Party and is threatening to expose a wider case involving an ex marine and a gay modeling agency.....This is just beginning to break....